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In a profile to be published in Esquire’s September issue, Hern said he got hate mail and death threats in 1970 when he started working in family planning. Hern, a friend of slain Kansas doctor George Tiller, said the threats resumed in 1973 when he helped start Boulder’s first non-profit clinic.

“I started sleeping with a rifle by my bed. I expected to get shot,” Hern told the magazine.

Tiller was shot May 31 while serving as an usher at his church. Hern said Tiller’s death was the result of 35 years of “hate speech” against abortion providers, something he blames on anti-abortion politicians and commentators.

“This is not a debate, it’s a civil war. And the other people are using bullets and bombs,” Hern said.